dws-winner-anne-marieke-cheque-awardThe Amsterdam-based start-up The Great Bubble Barrier is the winner of the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge 2018.

During the final, 29-year-old Anne Marieke Eveleens convinced the international jury that her ‘Bubble Barrier’, a special designed air bubble screen that pushes plastic waste to the water surface where it can be skimmed off, was the winner.

As the winner, Eveleens (on top photo) received a cheque of 500,000 euro to further develop her green innovation.
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dws-postcode-award-ceremony-350pxBoost for further development
In a first reaction Eveleens showed surprised and mentioned the importance of the prize for the further development of the screen.

´We were tipped off about the competition really at the last minute. The fact that I am standing here now as a winner is beyond my wildest dreams!´, the winner said.

´The prize money will help us to attract new talent,´Eveleens added, ´but also to develop our own plastic capture system. In addition, we can now put in a Bubble Barrier in the Netherlands. Fantastic!´

dws-postcode-bubble-barrier-test-deltares-350px   The concept was initially tested in a flume at Deltares (see photo) and has also been piloted in the mouth of the IJssel river.

Prevention of plastic soup in oceans
The Great Bubble Barrier has developed an air bubble screen for use on riverbeds that catches plastic before it arrives at sea. Approximately 80 percent of the plastic floating in the oceans enters the sea via rivers.

In order to tackle plastic soup, The Great Bubble Barrier sends high-pressure air through a perforated tube on the riverbed. This creates an air bubble curtain that blocks both the stream of plastic waste on the surface and the floating microparticles underwater.

The plastic then floats to the waterfront along the air bubble curtain, where it is collected for recycling.


Other prize winners

Ann Runnel (36) of Reverse Resources from Estonia has been awarded the runner-up prize of 200,000 euro. Reverse Resources is a software platform for the clothing industry’s recycling process. Using the platform, clothing manufacturers can directly align their supply of waste textiles with textile recyclers.

The 100,000 euro prizes were awarded to the Dutch start-up AquaBattery, the British start-up LettUs Grow and the American start-up Algiknit.

About the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge
With the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge, the Dutch Postcode Lottery wants to ensure that groundbreaking sustainable solutions are developed and brought to market. These entrepreneurs receive that bit of extra support to achieve this on condition that the products and services reduce CO2 emissions and score highly in terms of design, user-friendliness and quality.

The plan must be achievable within two years.

This news item was originally published on the website of Postcode Lottery.

Top photo credits: Roy Beusker

Read also on this website
Great Bubble Barrier and AquaBattery are finalists in Postcode Lottery Green Challenge, 22 August 2018
Great Bubble Barrier ready for the real job: collecting plastic from world’s largest rivers, 6 February 2018
Great bubble barrier team wins Plastic free rivers makathon, the Netherlands, 4 July 2016

More information
Postcode Lottery/Green Challenge
www.greenchallenge.info

The Great Bubble Barrier
Haarlem, the Netherlands
www.thegreatbubblebarrier.com/en

The winner moment of Postcode Lottery Green Challenge 2018.
https://youtu.be/XvMpjiS6aP0